Faversham Creek

Just back from the Kentish town of Faversham, where picked up some "Pieces of Eight" after taking mum out to lunch to celebrate last week's mother's day.

One of the nice things about that town is that hidden away behind it is Faversham Creek, which as you can see above is a narrow strip of water that winds its way out to the sea. Its been a navigable channel for hundreds of years, and there are venerable old houses along side quays whose founding date is lost in deepest history.

A Roman road goes through Faversham, connecting Canterbury to London, so its more than likely that ships from far away Rome reached here, trading and exploring, maybe bringing Mediterranean olive oil to these cold and wet islands.

The chart of the wiggly route up from the Medway estuary can be seen below.

Friggin in the riggin or a spanker?

What's it to be - a "Friggin in the riggin" or a "Spanker"? Or would you rather some of "Nelson's Blood" though it might more profitable to have "Pieces of Eight"?

Maybe you're more of a "Loose Cannon" person or had a bit too much of that "Dogwatch"

"Shiver my timbers" you might even get "Shipwrecked"!

More delightful names for Kentish real ale from the Nelson Brewery here.

So here's raising a glass of "Pieces of eight" to you and saying cheers!

Three Confessions

I have just got back from Dublin (more of this shortly) where I saw more evidence of the woes of rubbish with these examples floating by the docks.

However must confess that:
1) I flew there
2) I flew there from Heathrow
3) On the way home I shopped for bread and milk and having no spare space in my bags had to use one of the shop's dastardly plastic ones.

Its very hard with modern life to be eco-pure. I don't think that matters as much as simply caring enough to do something.

This article describes a family's effort to go plastic free: even though they failed, as modern life is based upon plastic. at least they tried.

Coastguards on Strike!

The coastguards have been on strike. As you will read here they are asking for an increase in their basic salary which is apparently just £14,000 per year.

For the vital role they perform that doesn't seem very much, so I hope they are successful.

What Sally Saw at Sea

I'm reading Sally Kettle's book "Sally's Odd at Sea" - more on it later. But one line has already caught my eye. Rowing across the Atlantic with her mum she says "what's been quite saddening is the amount of plastic floating around".

Like this plastic bag from the Guardian web site - more plastic rubbish here.

Another reason to cut back on those plastic bags.

Say no to Heathrow Expansion!

There is a blight over those boroughs by the Thames in London's otherwise green and pleasant south-west.

It starts in the early hours of the morning as the long haul planes whine their way into Heathrow, the world's busiest international airport. And then all day long there is a steady stream of aircraft, one every two or three minutes.

And the Government is planning to expand Heathrow by adding a third runway. Its crazy.

Why do politicians complain we don't take them seriously when they behave like this? When there was the long planning process for Terminal 5 it was promised this wouldn't lead to the expansion of the airport. And then we are told the Government is serious about limiting CO2 emissions and yet air travel is the fastest growing sources of greenhouse gases.

Maybe they'll surprise us all and announce that as everyone is against this - including all candidates to be mayor of London - then they'll stop it.

If they don't there's the danger I'll end up as gloomy as the visionary scientist James Lovelock, who's suggesting all we can do is just "enjoy life while you can".

That can be too negative, as it would imply its ok to do nothing - as its important to try.

As one of my hero's, Iain Banks, put it here "I want to be able to look my many nieces and nephews in the eye and say that when I realised there was a proper problem I tried to do something about it".

I have my nephews, nieces and godsons and I want to do my bit for them.

So I've filled in the DoT's long on-line questionnaire and written in to add my support for the opposition.

Heathrow's existing two runways are more than enough.

How to dredge in five easy steps

Step 1: Move into location. This is will take longer than expected if your tug is an underpowered, shrunk in the wash sort, like this one, and the tide is in full flood.

Step 2: Anchor. In the sailing books they talk about CQR, Bruce or old fashioned fisherman types of anchor. For some reason they forgot this method, which is to use the JCB sitting on the back of the boat and jam its arm into the mud:


3) Lowering the legs: a slightly more permenant way of fixing the barge's location than the JCB's arm, and you can have a lot of fun by jamming one in and then using the tug to spin the barge round and round.

Step 4: Have a cuppa! This is England after all - so what about wot the Sun says then?

Step 5: better get down to it then.

Actually despite that step 4, these guys seem to have been working quite hard - starting at 8am and ending at 5pm.

The Henry Moores at Kew

Today I went a little up the river to Kew, where in the Royal Botanic Gardens there is a wonderful exhibition of Henry Moores.

I'm not sure if exhibition is really the right word. Unlike a "proper" gallery, which too often are rigid white boxes in which the sculpture seems imprisoned by the concrete walls, at Kew they seem as natural and at home as the ducks and geese.

Did you ever go on easter egg hunts as a child? Do remember the excitement of seeing an egg hiding behind a bush? It was a bit like that - ok there was this map (which online is interactive and well worth an explore) but often there was a feeling of discovery and excitement as to what the next one will be.

There are 28 of them there, and they really connect to their surroundings. The warm bronze used echoes the natural textures of stone and wood, and the sculpture's holes create wonderful framed perspectives of the gardens.

Some are abstract forms, like an animal rockery. Others are sensual and romantic, with strong feminine curves. Totem poles stand like pagan guardians of the trees and flowers.

It seems a real shame that they will be dispersed. I feel like forming an untheft art squad - a crack team to go in under cover of darkness with a rucksack full of superglue to fix the sculptures to the soil of London forever.

Even that seems unlikely to succeed as heavy duty cranes are used to move them, so if you have a chance then go asap, as they will leave the gardens of Kew after the 30th March.

Some more photos:

Busy day on the river

Busy day on the river and the embankment by Putney - over 200 boats competing in the Women's Head of the River Race.

There was a strong wind was blowing from the west, hopefully helping them race down river. But it must have been cold out there and hard work with the choppy water.

But there were only four penalties - for "offensive language", "dangerous disembarking", and two cases of "impeding another crew".

I wonder if there are more penalties when its the men's turn for their Head of River Race? We'll find out in two weeks time!

Saving the Oceans Part III

On a cold winter's evening its tempting to think of rushing into the blue waters of the Med. But don't rush, take a moment to look out for those jelly fish. We don't like jelly fish, but others do, like swordfish and red tuna, for whom they're a tasty snack.

Trouble is swordfish and red tuna are tasty snacks for us human. And if we eat more of them then they eat less of those jellies. Add to that the warming oceans and as this reports says we have the recipe for a plague.

As someone who loves his fish, and not just on Fridays, this means must be careful when heading to the supermarket. So tonight there's a mini plug (and a till receipt) for M&S, whose fish has consistently received high marks for its sustainability.

M&S also have a new campaign to reduce the number of plastic bags clogging up the country and seas - they will start to charge for them.

Both are small steps - and there might be those questioning the benefits: how can such small changes save the planet? But anyone who cares about the world around us and the future of the planet for later generations it must be morally wrong to not even try to do something.

A siblings in-law family member had a bad stroke this week, something which always raises the big questions. One day you and me will both be dead (sorry to say) and our legacy will be the acts we perform. Lets try to make them good ones.

Sailing - sport or obsession?

It was a quiet evening last night so I ended up watching Wedding Crashers on Film 4. Its not the best film in the world, though the start with all the cashed weddings worked, and the boat (above) looked pretty cool.

One gag was about a couple that was so into sailing that their marriage vows were on the lines of "I take thee to be the first mate / skipper of my life". Ok, not exactly laugh out loud, more of a groan.

But it hits a spot - there are those that can become too narrowly focussed on sailing. It reminded me of the Industry Sailing Challenge race I did many years ago when one of the crew refused to talk about anything not related to the race. After 12 hours of rather single noted conversation time began to drag.....

Sailing is fun, but there is life outside.

Which is just as well given how little sailing had a chance to do recently!

Dredging

The post yesterday talked about how weirs can be used to manage silt. There is of course a more direct way of getting rid of silt - dredging.

Here you can see recent dredging of one of the river bus quays. The barge has the ball-diamond-ball of a vessel restricted in its ability to manoever. And at night it has the red-green-red lights - even when anchored (hmm - well at least you notice it).

Why have a weir on the Wandle?

I've been wondering why there is a weir at all at the mouth of Wandle. The Wiki entry on weirs gives a number of reasons, from navigation to fishing, neither of which seem that convincing. Given the low rain fall over the last few weeks it can't be to manage flood levels.

A more plausible explanation could be to manage silt, of which there is quite a lot. The Thames is a thick, brown soup, suspended mud particles making the water opaque. The view above shows a bank of it deposited just by the Wandle.

This is very low tide - if you look at the tide tables on the PLA site you'll see the range between low and high tide reached a peak of 7m at London Bridge at around the time of the Lunar eclipse, when the picture was taken. This isn't that surprising, given that the all-in-a-line geometry that caused the eclipse also maximises the gravitational drag.

The Thames is just visible over a pile of silt, rocks, rubbish and that horrible smelling mud. To give an idea how much higher the water goes in this picture, the orange ring of the life belts at the end of each of the houseboat moorings will and did get to the top of the white of the pile.

So this spot would be under several metres of water at high tide!

Limiting the flow into the Thames over the weir will reduce the flow of silt from the Wandle, giving the Thames a chance to flush just a little of it out.

Well, thats my theory anyhow - could be completely wrong!

Wandle Navigation Markers

Two photos to clear up the navigation when heading up the Wandle off the Thames.

On the left is the red port triangular market and right the green starboard (as per IALA A, heading up the river). Also on poles are lights indicating state of the weir.

Below you can see the same signs from the other side, at a bit later as the tide has only just reached the top of the weir.

You can just make out the concrete slabs on either side of the top weir supports poking out of the water.

The tide will rise a further 1m, so the weir will become an invisible, dangerous, barrier if the lights weren't there.

London's Waterfall

When you think of waterfall's you don't often think of London. But they are there - sometimes.

Like this one where the Wandle meets the Thames, which is only there when they raise the weir, which they did last week.

Ok its not Niagara, but its a shame its hidden away where no one can see it unless they, like I did, venture out at low tide onto the Thames with its very smelly mud.

Alone at sea

So Soayna has had enough and is heading back to NY, leaving Reid alone to keep going for those 1,000 days at sea.

I am very sympathetic as it sounds like she never got over sea sickness: it must be terrible to be that sick for that long. I have some sailing friends who get sick every time they head out and it amazes me they keep coming back for more: sailing can be uncomfortable, cold and wet which is hard enough but to be sick too.....

I haven't followed the journey that closely (so thanks to frogma for the heads-up) but not because I'm one of those posters on Sailing Anarchy that endlessly takes the micky and belittles what they try to achieve. Its clearly not an easy thing to do!

And the inner space cadet likes the tag about it being like a mission to Mars - a similar duration involving endurance in a confined space.

So I hope Reid manages to keep going. But for a full further two years, by himself - now that really is a challenge.

Sailing Video

Cool YouTube video here of Thomson and Cape breaking the 500 miles in 24 hours record.

But don't they know the golden rule of sailing fast videos: it must be accompanied by thumping rock sound track!

Aliens invade our Oceans!

More environmental problems in our oceans, this time from aliens.

Forget little green men and think on the lines of species ranging from "giant jellyfish and toxic seaweed to muscle-bound mussels and oysters" according to this week's New Scientist (alas subscription required for full article). These invasive species are being transported by ocean going container ships and causing up to $120 billion per year of damages!

But the end of the article also says there are things that can be done to slow further spreading - such as more regular cleaning and destroying any organisms in ballast water before its discharge.

Seems like a very good idea to me.

Also there was this article about the extinction danger to amphibians - the cause has been identified and its loss of habitat. Give those frogs some space!

Missed the Moon

So I didn't get up at 3am to see the eclipse.

Thing is, it was cloudy, it was cold, it was on the other side of the building so couldn't just look our of the window, and it was mid-week with work the next day.

However others managed to see it and take some pictures like the one above that came from here.

Next time!

More on the moon

After posting a picy of the moon was interested to find out there'll be a Lunar eclipse Wednesday night / Thursday morning.

If you want to see it the exact times for your location can be found on this NASA site.

Sunset with plane

To go with the earlier Moon and plane photo.

Jamming GPS

GPS has become so essential to navigation its been a bit of shock to some to hear that the UK Ministry of Defence has been deliberately jamming it. However it is vital to determine how vulnerable our military's equipment is to jamming, to be able to identify when it is happening and suggest possible mitigations, so I have a lot of sympathy to a limited and controlled real world test.

There was a letter in this months Yachting World on the subject that quoted extensively from this story on the RYA web site.

The letter, unlike the RYA web site, missed out the most useful fact that warnings of these exercises are published beforehand, and there is a free email alert system operated by Ofcom that anyone can signed up to.

You can sign up via this page, and the next two exercises are these:

Dates: 31 March to 4 April 2008
Times: between 08:00 and 18:00 hrs
Location: To sea from Bridlington - N54° 06.842’ W000° 05.045’
Contact: Trial Manager - 07766 134758


Dates: 20-21 April 2008 (26 April 2008 reserve day)
Times: between 09:00 and 17:00 hrs
Location: To sea from The Hebrides - N57° 14.4’ W007° 26.7’
Contact (during jamming exercise only) 07766 134520

Moon shot

After blogging posts on global warming and tides I looked up and saw this - a CO2 emitting plane flying past the main sources of our tides, the Moon.

Seemed rather symbolic!

Wind against tide

These waves might be small and perfectly formed but they are good examples of a classic.

If it were a boat it would be made of wood and probably commissioned by Sir Thomas Lipton, if it were a car it would probably have been driven by Inspector Morse.

It is of course that old favourite wind against tide, in this case the out-going tide battling against an easterly wind.

It is no excuse for not going on the water, as this brave dinghy sailor shows:

What the photo can't show is that today's easterly wind is bitingly cold.

However tempting it might look I'm not going to be joining him.

Save the Oceans - Part 2

More stories of the seas stressed by our impact on the environment.

Firstly this one about global warming raising the sea temperatures around the Antarctic potentially letting in predators like the crab above into the fragile eco-systems. Or, as the Sun headline screams, "Ice thaw killer crab claw war"!

Then this one, again about the impact of warming waters, on the increasing plagues of jelly fish that are thriving in the Med.

And finally two more reminders that biofuels are absolutely not the answer to our energy needs - they not only make global warming worse they are driving up food prices for the poorest too.

Save the Oceans

How many plastic bags have you got? Today I went shopping for a book and card and got two little ones, which will no doubt end up in the rubbish.

I should have said no to both, for waste plastic is poisoning our oceans. Earlier in the week I read this and this article about the world's rubbish trapped by the currents in the Pacific, as the article puts it "a garbage tip stretching from Hawaii to Japan".

So much plastic, so much rubbish.

And then today there was this article on the BBC site about how only 4% of the oceans are undamaged by human activity.

Its pretty shocking stuff - and makes me angry at how we are trashing our planet. And more than ever fired up to recycle more and waste less.

April's February's March's Yachting World

This month's Yachting World, which is of course March's, but on sale now, in February, has a summary of Tristan's trans-Atlantic, describing him as "another super adventurer in the making"

Whow, easy Elaine - don't tempt him! Not sure Tristan's wife and kids would be that happy if he heads off straight away.

Hopefully more next month which will be MarchApril's

Dampier's true love

The explorer and traveling William Dampier was in no sense a traditional romantic. He married in 1678 but only a few months later left his wife, Judith, to go seeking adventure - a buccaneer voyaging all the way around the world. He didn't return for 12 years.

He certainly didn't seem to rush back, and only mentioned his wife once in his journals. He must have had several opportunities to return but chose to keep going, forever onwards.

Or maybe he didn't want to - maybe he was fleeing from the strength of her character. He is known to communicate difficult decisions to her by letter.

Did he find solace on the way? In Mindanaon, in the Philippines, having crossed the long expenses of the Pacific, he, like the rest of the crew, made friendships with local women, a so-called pagally. Did he remain just friends with his pagally?

The chapters of his book that describe their time in Mindanaon are the most vibrant, the most alive of any of his book. So maybe far away from his home in England he did find some romance.

But his true love was to travel. His mind and heart was lost to the horizon and wondering what was beyond it.

Red Sky At Night, Gunners Delight

About the time I took this photo there was a cheer in the distance from the Chelsea ground where they were playing Liverpool. But no goals at that game where the crowd was reacting to a clumsy ref, on an afternoon when Man U lost.

The results were a delight to London's top team, the Arsenal, known as the Gunners, who tonight have just gone 5 points clear at the top of the Premiership.

What a pretty picture!

Bird Boat

This is a rather unusual boat. A barge moored on the Thames just offshore between two posts it is home to the ducks and geese, for this is a floating bird house.

Its been a lovely spring day here - weirdly warm, where we can walk around without coats in early February.

The river bank was full of families and couples out for a Sunday afternoon walk - or in the case of this elegant pair, a paddle:

Waterspout in Wales

This photo of a water spout comes again from the BBC and was spotted recently in Wales. They may, as the article suggested, be "fairly common" but I've never seen one!

Its a slow time of year for sailing and work is pretty intense so likely to be posting less frequently than normal for a bit.

April's Yachting World

Update on Tristan's solo trans-Atlantic - er, he made it!

Yup, that's all I'm going to say, despite catching up with him over a drink during the week. Because if you want to know the rest you can read all about it in April's Yachting World, as Tristan has written up his story for that magazine - and whats more got paid for it (impressive again).

Chocs Away!

More gifts from the sea for the wreckers. In Scotland they had Whisky Galore, but in England now its a case of Biscuits Galore with chocolate McVities spilt by the Riverdance (above, Flickr photo) all over the beach at Blackpool.

Stormy Weather

Bit of stormy weather here in old blighty today.

The above rather cool wind-surfing photo comes from Ireland via the BBC web site. But not all out on the water are having such a good time.

As reported here, a ferry was beached by a freak wave off Blackpool and a Spanish trawler ran aground on rocks on one islands of the St Kilda Archipelago. There's some rather impressive night time video taken by the RAF also at that BBC news page.

We might have to get used to it. Research at University College London in todays FT suggested that a 0.5°C increase in sea surface temperature - which is within the range expected over the next few years due to global warming - would cause a 40 per cent increase in North Atlantic hurricanes.

Aunty Beeb was also reporting two other risks due to global warming - the danger to the London due to flooding and devastation of food crops in developing countries.

And brrrr its cold tonight too. Time either for a mug of cocoa or a hot bath!